College Football Nation: Oklahoma, Wisconsin disappoint

Eric Avidon

Thursday

Oct 27, 2011 at 12:01 AMOct 27, 2011 at 9:57 AM

You give yourself to a team, believe it can be brilliant, and then it breaks your heart. That was the case last weekend for fans of Oklahoma and Wisconsin, teams that teased just enough to make people think a perfect season was possible. But it wasn’t.

You give yourself to a team, believe it can be brilliant, and then it breaks your heart.

That was the case last weekend for fans of Oklahoma and Wisconsin, teams that teased just enough to make people think a perfect season was possible.

But it wasn’t.

In hindsight, the telltale sign was there that neither was truly good enough, not compared to some others that are out there.

It’s possible to become champion without a superb defense. But it’s not probable. And both the Sooners and Badgers have holes on defense.

A dominant defense doesn’t slump. It doesn’t rely on the arm of one still extremely young quarterback to perform at peak level in the face of the enormous pressure of expectations. It doesn’t turn the ball over at the worst possible time.

Instead it can overwhelm even the most seemingly unstoppable offenses, make what looks like a machine against mediocrity look mediocre. It can increase the pressure on that still extremely young quarterback, to the point where uncharacteristic mistakes happen with surprising frequency.

And most importantly, it can make up for a subpar game from the mercurial beast that is an offense.

It’s why the national champion will likely be the winner of next Saturday night’s momentous matchup between LSU and Alabama. And it’s why Oklahoma and Wisconsin, upset losers last Saturday night, were really just pretenders.

The Sooners were the preseason favorites to win it all this fall, to break the stranglehold the SEC has had on the crystal football for five seasons running. But while the Oklahoma offense showed it could score with anyone through six games, its defense wasn’t the kind that can hold down everyone.

The Sooners allowed 28 points at home to Missouri on Sept. 24, and perhaps got a bit lucky the week before that Florida State quarterback E.J. Manuel got hurt and freshman Clint Trickett was the signal-caller for the Seminoles in a game that was tied 13-13 early in the fourth quarter.

Allowing 17 points to Texas and Kansas doesn’t seem like much, not when the offense scores 55 and 47, but an elite defense barely allows anything to average offenses like the ones the Longhorns and Jayhawks have.

The lack of a shutdown defense cost the Sooners Saturday night at home against Texas Tech in a game the Sooners were favored to win by three touchdowns. Quarterback Landry Jones and the offense couldn’t steadily produce, needing 21 fourth-quarter points to even make the score close. He threw an interception in the third quarter with the Sooners trailing 31-14. Wide receiver Ryan Broyles lost a fumble in the second quarter with Oklahoma down 14-7. Kicker Mike Hunnicutt missed a 28-yard attempt late in the fourth quarter with the Sooners trailing 41-34, and a 38-yarder in the first quarter as well.

All those mistakes wouldn’t have made much difference had Oklahoma’s defense locked down the Texas Tech. But with the Red Raiders gaining 536 total yards and scoring 24 unanswered points during the second and third quarters - turning a 7-7 tie into a 31-7 lead - they were too much to overcome.

“I told the players that anyone who we'll play the rest of the year will whoop us if we don’t play better than we did today,” Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said after the loss. “They just flat out beat us.”

Wisconsin was an outsider that became an insider when Russell Wilson transferred from North Carolina State and gave the Badgers the kind of quarterback they’ve never had.

But what they really needed was the return of J.J. Watt - the defensive lineman who left early for the NFL after last year - or some other difference maker on defense.

At no point did Wisconsin allow a bunch of points to an opponent, but right in the very first game of the season there should have been alarm bells. UNLV - which is 1-5 and ranks 116th in scoring offense - managed 17 points against the Badgers. It spoke to vulnerability that was finally exposed by Michigan State, which scored 37 points.

Throw in the first mediocre game by Wilson, who threw two interceptions - including one in the fourth quarter when the Badgers trailed 31-24 - and the defense’s porous play was too much to overcome.

“We needed all three phases for us to win today,” Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema said in his postgame press conference, “and it just didn’t happen at times.”

And then there are Alabama and LSU. The Tide has not allowed more than 14 points all season, and that was against Arkansas, which is now ranked 10th. The Tigers, meanwhile, gave up 27 to the scary Oregon offense, which has the Ducks currently ranked sixth in the BCS, and they allowed 21 at 25th-ranked West Virginia, but beyond that they’ve held everyone to 10 or less.

Those are the kind of defenses that can overcome a bad game by usually flawless players on offense, like the ones had by Jones and Wilson.

Those are the kind of defenses that make upsets unlikely.

It’s not impossible to win with an average defense and a superb offense. Auburn did it just last year. But it’s a lot more rare than winning with an average offense and superb defense.

In truth, a team that wins with average defense is just a tease, destined to break your heart.

What We Learned

The BCS got lucky last weekend. A nightmare scenario was in the works, and still could be but now looks less likely.

Before Wisconsin and Oklahoma lost, the possibility lurked that there would be five unbeaten teams from the six major conferences when the regular season ended.

The winner of the LSU-Alabama game likely would have played the winner of the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State game for the national title, but only because a computer selected those two teams over three equally deserving ones.

Meanwhile, undefeated Stanford would have run through Pac-12 without a loss and played undefeated Wisconsin, which would have run the Big Ten gauntlet flawlessly, in the Rose Bowl. And down in the Orange Bowl, unbeaten Clemson, which would have run the ACC without a loss, would have gone after its first perfect season since 1981.

It’s possible there would have been three teams with flawless records when the dust settled after the January bowls, yet two would not be national champions despite doing everything right.

And therein lies the continued problem.

There should never be a scenario where teams go through conferences like the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC - or the SEC and Big 12, for that matter - and not only don’t win the national championship but don’t even get a shot at it.

There has been outcry over the unfairness of the BCS in the past, and plenty of calls for a playoff, but nothing previous measures up to what might have happened had there been five undefeated teams from five major conferences.

In a way, it’s a shame Oklahoma and Wisconsin lost. The more ridiculous the scenario that keeps deserving teams from a chance at playing in New Orleans on Jan. 9, the more obvious the need for change.

The simple truth is that the BCS only truly works when there are just two teams with perfect records (or one loss). Any other time, there’s at least one team with a legitimate complaint, while fans of the game at large always have a complaint.

Fortunately, while Wisconsin’s loss means the Big Ten won’t produce an undefeated team, there’s still the chance for four teams from major conferences to stay perfect through the end of the regular season.

If chaos is what it takes for change to take place, root for Oklahoma State, Stanford and Clemson to run the table, and for the winner in next Saturday night’s clash between Alabama and LSU to stay strong the rest of the way.

The BCS got lucky last weekend, but it’s not off the hook yet.

Game of the Week

Two of the teams still perfect face their biggest tests to date, both on the road.

As the sun descends on another college football Saturday, fifth-ranked Clemson will take on Georgia Tech and its maddening triple option in Atlanta. Meanwhile, in the ancient L.A. Coliseum, USC’s men of Troy await sixth-ranked Stanford.

If the Tigers and Cardinal are to live their BCS dreams, they must overcome this weekend’s traps.

Clemson, like Wisconsin and Oklahoma before, has run to its 8-0 record on the strength of an explosive offense led by the arm of quarterback Tajh Boyd and the fabulously talented hands of freshman wide receiver Sammy Watkins. The Tigers are averaging 40.6 points per game, and have wins over Auburn, Florida State and Virginia Tech.

But they allow 25 per game, and gave up 45 to Maryland two weeks ago and 38 to North Carolina last week. Georgia Tech poses problems for any defense, but especially for undisciplined ones. Its rushing attack, based on the combination of power and confusion, makes teams look foolish.

Though it stalled last week against Miami, it averages more than 320 yards per game on the ground, and gained an astonishing 604 in crushing Kansas.

“Just a tough Georgia Tech team that we see every year and it’s another big challenge for us, especially to have to go down there on the road,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney on Wednesday. “Great environment to play in. Always a challenge when you’re facing those guys and what they do on offense. They put a ton of pressure on you every single snap and make you play with a lot of discipline. And if you don’t, it’s a big play.”

Stanford doesn’t face the kind of scary attack that could expose its weakness, but instead plays a USC team that’s having a surprisingly strong season, and only seems to be getting better.

The Cardinal are everything a team making a run at perfection should be, second in the nation in scoring with Heisman favorite Andrew Luck leading the way, and fourth in scoring defense allowing just 12.6 points per game. But Stanford hasn’t had to play any top teams yet, and while the Trojans are a far cry from the USC teams that won national titles in 2003 and 2004, they are a step up in talent for the Cardinal.

Quarterback Matt Barkley alone represents a threat for the Stanford defense, but he’s merely part of what figures to the best offense the Cardinal has faced. And while the USC defense is merely average, it too is better than anything Stanford has faced.